“Chances are it’s not going to be smooth sailing.”
“You can say that again,” Tom replied.
Alicen’s voice perked up behind everyone. “I don’t want to go.” She pushed past Chris and sat on the seat next to Jenn. She buried her hand into the bag of chips before Jenn could offer. “Why can’t we stay here?”
“And live in the bus?” Jake asked.
“There’s no one out here,” she said. “Maybe they’ll leave us alone.”
Jake sighed. “We talked about this,” he said. “There’s only one safe place.”
Chris was impressed with the boy’s patience, but he still wasn’t convinced Catalina would be a safe place. It had become something that had to be safe. If not, they were doing all of this for nothing, and none of them wanted to consider that. He had to believe as best he could until he found out different.
“Let’s pack up whatever food we have left,” Chris said. “Take all the ammo, even if we don’t have the guns to put them in.”
Jake and Tom went to work. Chris decided to take a good look around before they lost the sunlight. His recon revealed they were in a particularly solitary spot, and he hoped they would survive until morning. Night set in quickly, and they settled in the last two rows of the bus, wrapped in complete darkness.
♦
Chris couldn’t sleep. He scanned the eastern horizon as the sky lightened to a cool shade of violet. He quietly roused the others, and they were on the move long before sunlight broke above the distant mountains. They stayed on the highway, keeping close to the southern side. Chris had no desire to enter the streets of L.A. until they absolutely had to.
The streets were quiet with only the sound of the hard Santa Ana winds cutting between the buildings. The morning pace was steady, with frequent stops to keep Tom’s and the kids’ strength in good order. The heat of the day was on them by the time they caught sight of movement. There were people putting something together on the top of a building, but that didn’t concern Chris as much as a group cutting behind a grocery store.
Chris brought everyone to a stop and got down behind a concrete berm. It was impossible to tell if the other group spotted them, but their current course would cross paths up ahead. Chris kept his eyes on the group until the first of them stepped out from behind the store and the truth became known.
His words slipped out of his mouth in a whisper. “They’re infected.”
One by one, heads popped up behind him for a look.
“They’re not bothered at all by the light,” Jenn said.
“Are they coming for us?” Alicen asked.
“I don’t think they saw us,” he said unconvincingly. He eyed the way ahead. “We’re going to have to get off the highway.” He looked over the berm at a steep decline down to a smaller access road. The grassy slope was dotted with short trees.
“You think that’s a good idea?”
He heard Jenn’s question, but he didn’t have an answer. The group of infected could turn off long before they reached the highway, but something in his gut told him this is where they hunted.
“We can’t risk it,” he said. “When I say to go, come around me and start down.” He kept his eyes on the infected. They were fifty yards out when he gave the signal. “Stay low.”
Jenn was in front with the kids moving between her and Tom. Chris stayed put. He watched the infected, waiting to see which way they were headed. Jenn was halfway down the slope when the group split. Chris wanted to call out to her, but he didn’t want to give their position away.
The group of infected splintered. The central form moved on toward the highway, while one section headed away to the west and another directly toward the access road. There were no orders given or commands shouted out for the others to follow. They split apart as if on synchronized cue. Chris had to make a decision, and it had to be now.
He was moving a second later. The grassy slope left him out in the open until the tree line midway down. Jenn held the others up, certain something was wrong. Chris was within whispering distance when an excited screech resonated between the surrounding buildings. He reached Jenn with a renewed sense of urgency. He didn’t have to look to know the infected had seen him.
“They’re coming,” he said, his eyes wide with terror.
No one needed further explanation. They burst out of the tree line and reached the street a second later, running full speed. The surrounding structures made it impossible to see where the infected were coming from, but the rising dreadful sounds told them they were closing in. Gunshots rang out from the rooftops, and the echo was drowned out by maddening shrieks.
“There, there, go.” Chris urged them to turn.
They were out in the open, running blindly through the streets. Chris had a vague idea of the direction they were headed, but he couldn’t be sure unless he had the time to check the map. He drove them on, keeping everyone out in front. They made several turns, and each time, they managed to keep the trailing sounds farther and farther behind them.
Alicen’s pace slowed until she was only a step in front of Chris. Jake tried to pull her along, but his strength was deteriorating. The sun was up over the buildings, and the heat bore down on them. Sweat soaked through their clothes as they gasped for breath. Tom nearly toppled over before Chris finally stopped.
“Over there,” Jenn said, her hands resting on her knees. She pointed at an alleyway between two storefronts. “We have to get off the road.”
Chris could only nod. He helped Tom and Jake and then got behind Alicen. The sound of the infected echoed off the buildings, but it was distant enough to make it impossible to tell which direction they were coming from. Tom made it to the alley with Chris’s help and then collapsed when he was left to his own strength. Chris ordered the kids behind a dumpster across from Tom and they sat down behind it. Jenn continued the rest of the way down the alley and then stumbled back with a silent report. It took several minutes before anyone had enough air to speak.
“I can still hear them,” Alicen said. “Are they going to get us?”
“No,” Jake assured her.
Chris wasn’t so sure. These infected appeared as capable as the ones who stormed the casino. If the entire city was filled with them, Chris couldn’t see how they’d ever make it to the harbor. There was something terribly concerning about not having seen a single zombie. A sudden quiet pulled everyone’s attention back to the street.
Chris’s eyes met the kids, and they were frozen by the silence. He put a finger to his lips and started toward the end of the alley with slow, purposeful steps. He was several feet away from the street when a series of sounds reached his ears. There were moans from somewhere beyond his view, but they were so faint, he could scarcely make them out. It wasn’t until he edged forward that he got his first look at the cause behind the sounds.
He lay down flat on the cold concrete and slid his head out beyond the side of the building. There was movement across the street in the direction they’d come. A large group of infected and a number of undead pushed out into the middle of the street. It took him several seconds to piece together what they were doing.
The dead were corralled in the center of the road by several infected surrounding them on all sides. They moved them down the street with a series of grunts and guttural sounds. The sidewalks were littered with infected figures. Sparsely dressed men and women, marred with bloodstains combed the edges of the buildings, gawking down side streets, in through broken windows and long abandoned vehicles.
The hunt, which Chris was sure it was, was so well set that he could hardly believe it. A woman walked out in front, obscene in her nakedness. Her exposed limbs were stained in the gore of previous victims. The dark lines of her disease crisscrossed every inch of her skin, disfiguring a once fit physique.
Her hellacious eyes snapped up and met Chris’s gaze. He threw himself back behind cover, but the damage was done. He sprinted toward the others as a wicked shriek cried out from
the street. The call to feast was echoed by a chorus of rising moans and flesh lustful squeals. Jenn pulled the kids up to run as she shouted a question.
“What is it?”
Chris didn’t have an answer. His mind couldn’t think of a way to describe what he’d seen among their pursuers. Instead, he cried out the only thing that made sense in his mind.
“Run, run for your life.”
22
The sun rose to its highest point in the sky and left few shadows on the city streets. The alleyways offered some relief, but the heat was the worst it had been in several weeks. Midday brought stickiness to everything, promising sweat-stained clothing and a desperate need for hydration. Water was a problem for survivors and even more so for survivors currently scurrying for their lives.
Chris was tired of running. He knew the others couldn’t possibly keep up. He let them rest when he could, but the sound of the infected horde coming after them was a strong motivator. He hadn’t had time to explain what he saw nor was he sure it mattered. The infected were obviously able to communicate. Why they didn’t appear to be as advanced in Denver wasn’t clear.
He was bent over, sucking in air, holding himself up with one hand pressed against the side of a high-rise building. He didn’t have to look to see if the others were waiting behind him. Their gasps for breath and an occasional vomit was a good indicator. It wasn’t going to be long before one of them fell out for good.
The infected were relentless. Other than the people on the rooftops they had seen from the highway, there were no signs of life. Chris guessed the food source for the infected was scarce and there was nothing that was going to stop them from hunting fresh meat. The infected were herding the dead, pushing them through the streets. He wasn’t sure of the significance of it, but the thought caused him to shake.
He took another deep breath and slowed his heartbeat enough to consider moving again. A look at the others painted a different picture. Tom was lying flat on his back in the center of the alley with Jenn on her knees next to him. Jake was leaning against the wall, and the puddle between his legs gave him away as the most recent vomiter. His sister was sitting close to him, but her eyes were on Chris.
The vicious sounds of the following multitude were distant enough to give him the courage to pull out his map. He unfolded the pages and laid it out on the ground. A quick scan told him they were close to the course he set. They were too far north but generally heading in a western direction. He had no delusions of what they were up against, but as long as they were running, he figured they might as well run in the right direction.
“We have to keep moving,” he said as he refolded the map. “They’re not going to stop.”
Jenn got to her feet and helped her dad up. Chris was putting the map away when she made it over to him.
“We can’t keep this up.”
“I don’t know what else you want me to do.”
“This push-them-til-they-collapse approach isn’t going to work.” She looked back at the kids. Both were up, but Jake was on shaky legs. He’d spent a good amount of his energy keeping his sister moving by pushing her from behind. “We have to find somewhere to hole up.”
“You want to go traipsing around in these buildings?” Chris asked. “Who knows what we’ll run into? We could get trapped.”
“Would you rather us get caught out here in the open?”
She was right. There was no way they were going to make it all the way to Long Beach without being overrun, and there wasn’t enough ammo to consider making a stand. He nodded, not sure what he was going to do about it. He gave it another thought and then gathered everyone.
“We’re going to push on as far as everyone can stand it,” he said and continued before Jenn could interrupt, “but we’re going to try and find a place to hide. Maybe they’ll miss us and we can get around them somehow.” Even while he was saying it, he didn’t believe it. “We’ll go slow and push south.” He pointed at the street behind the building. “That will keep us going in the right direction.”
There was no response except for a series of head nods. The rising sounds of death-filled moans echoed louder, signaling a need to move. Chris started off at a fast walk. He felt the burn in his legs, but at least he could breathe.
The buildings continued to grow in size and stature. The once highly polished signs on the sides of the structures told them they were entering the heart of a corporate district. The streets were deathly silent, and the size of it was haunting. The city felt like an ancient ruin abandoned ages ago. Vehicles littered the road, some burnt out and bashed in, others covered in thick layers of dust.
They were fast approaching the point of pure exhaustion. Chris could see it in the kids’ faces and the adults weren’t far behind. They had run out of water some time ago, and without it, they would be dead whether the infected found them or not. Chris had his eyes on a small grassy patch between the endless rows of buildings. He held them short of West 9th Street and watched for any movement. They dashed across the road when he was satisfied and plunged between trees under a sign that read Grand Hope Park.
He led them toward a fountain in the southwest corner with hope in his heart. A number of bodies littering the ground near the fountain caused him to slow. Nothing moved, but something about the place frightened him. They were midway through the park when Chris came to a stop. Jenn rushed past him, followed by the kids. Tom was at a trot when Chris called out.
“Hold on.”
Jenn slowed but didn’t stop. A hint of water in the fountain basin pulled her like a moth to a flame.
“I can see water,” she said.
“Just wait.” Something in Chris’s voice brought her and the kids to a sudden stop. He scanned the park with new eyes. The trees along the iron rod fence separating the park from the street were badly overgrown. The stillness was disturbing. “I got a bad feeling.” He didn’t know how to explain it any other way.
Tom was standing at his shoulder. He could hear the old man’s deep breaths as he tried to figure out what spooked Chris. Alicen took a step toward the fountain, and the movement pulled Chris’s gaze. As he turned his head, he saw something else move in a doorway across the street. He spun toward it in time to see a figure step out into the light and then back into the darkness of the alcove.
“We need to go,” Chris said. He was walking toward an exit on the opposite side of the field, adjacent to a building. “We’re trapped in here.”
The moment the declaration left his mouth, the assault began. Distorted figures poured out of the surrounding buildings. The moans erupted as if on cue, reverberating from the street south of the park. The infected moved with speed, their bodies shifting with a mix of violent twitching and an odd smoothness. Their screeches highlighted the moans of the undead like a falsetto above a chorus line.
“Go.”
Chris was running as he turned to look for the others. Jenn was on the move, forcing the kids out in front of her. She looked for her father and struggled with her desire to wait for him. Alicen’s screams went unheard. The sounds of the dead washed over the park in a thick blanket. The infected reached the north and west side entrances. Chris knew at once that Tom wouldn’t make it.
He was heading back toward the old man when Jenn and the kids passed him, going the other way. Chris saw the look of desperation in her eyes. There were more infected than he could count, all hurrying in for the first chance at a live meal. Chris raised his gun but didn’t bother to fire. He had a quick thought to save the last few rounds for himself if needed. He started his turn as he met Tom close to the fountain. The two were in full sprint with their eyes focused on the back of Jenn.
The sight of the dead moving up the street was more than any of them could take. Hundreds of zombies pushed forward with shambling steps as their infected herders drove them from behind. The south street was nearly covered by the time Jenn reached the opening in the fence, and the vision of her and the kids urged the dead on.
> Chris could hear the howls of the infected as they closed in. A heat ran over him as their breath filled the air. In a maddening state, he ran, pushing his legs beyond his strength. Jenn reached the far side of the street before she stopped. Her eyes were glaring past him. He knew what happened before the scream ever left her mouth.
“Dad.”
Chris didn’t look back. Jake grabbed Jenn as she tried to run back across the street. Alicen pulled on Jenn’s shirt trying to get her to keep running. Chris was out in the street before the kids got her to move again. They rushed between two buildings, continuing south. Chris found himself out in the middle of the road, and the image of a mob of the dead coming down the street froze him in terror.
Like a mass of black and putrid filth, it came. The line of infected pushing the first wave was only a hint at what followed. The horde of undead was uncountable, running the length of the street to the west, farther than the eye could see. The sight of it, all at once, stole Chris’s breath, and his mind seemed incapable of understanding what he was looking at.
They moved in coordinated columns, their numbers swelling beyond imagination. A reek of death preceded them in a cloud, perforating everything in its path. The volume of their desire for flesh reached a level of deafening proportion. In the end, a glimpse of the droves of infected devouring what was left of Tom forced Chris to continue.
He pressed himself, although he had little left to carry his weight. Jenn and the kids were so far ahead that the thought of trying to catch up nearly caused him to collapse. Jake and Alicen looked back for him, but Jenn held a hand of each, her legs never stopping. Chris plunged down the road between the buildings, and he barely reached the next block before the first of the zombie horde made the turn.
Jenn and the kids veered off and Chris lost sight of them. His pace slowed as he tried to figure out where they went. His body refused to carry on, and before long, he was moving at a sluggish trot. The sounds from behind told him his fate was nearing. He crossed a street, and his eyes locked on a stream of the infected funneling toward him on both sides.
The Decaying World Saga Box Set [Prequel #1-#2 & Books #1-#2] Page 40